Five for Friday

Fridays are tough for me! I eagerly run around the room at the end of the day try to get everything 'just so' for the following week. I'm going to better utilize my time eventually, but until then I'll have to do my Five for Friday on Saturday mornings! Here are some pictures I've taken this week that never made it over to Instagram! I'm linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching!

I just finished my first full cycle of vocabulary and it went pretty well. You can read about it here. For my next cycle, I will implement some online tools to help the students study at home. I'll post about how that goes next week :)

I always write my lesson plans on a printable planner I use each week. A few weeks ago, Leslie Ann from Life in Fifth Grade posted about how she uses a Day Design Planner to pre-write her plans. I loved her idea so much that I went out and found me one... Only I didn't! If you saw this picture on Instagram then you know I was pretty disappointed! Luckily, my sweet friend from Not Jane had an extra she wasn't using. She mailed it to me and it's the best thing ever!

This past week I broke out my Intro to TBE unit. 

I used it to teach TBE to my students and how to support our answers with evidence. We only focused on one question because that took long enough! This product contains explicit directions on how to use TBE, bookmarks, anchor chart example, anchor chart student printable, 5 passages with 5 TBE questions, and many more! It's a huge timesaver! Anyways, the model lesson is a 'scary' passage about a mansion that two friends are dared to enter. It ends with the girl character walking through the door and getting a chill down her spine. Oh my! I had no idea 5th graders loved a mystery so much! In fact, they loved it so much that after we did our lesson I have them 10 minutes to continue the story. IT.WAS.UNBELIEVEABLE! You know the students that will not do any work?!? They were writing! It was amazing. These are pictures of the 10 minute free write. I'm thinking we will work on these this entire 1st quarter since they loved them so much! Then, we'll hang them up in a 'spooky' way!

Yesterday we had our first reading response day. Each Friday my students will have an reading response assignment waiting on them in Google Classroom. I {LOVE} this! Not only is it a great outlet for reflective writing and reading, but I get to know each student a little better! I add comments and they can comment back to me. This is one of my four classes working away!

Lastly, I can't wait to join in on all the fun! I'm hoping I will have time to post each day. This is going to be my goal(s) once I get all my papers graded this weekend!

Five for Friday

Hey ya'll!  I'm linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching this week for..... :)

This will be the last Five for Friday until August 2nd.  She's taking a much needed break!

No. 5

Image Source: Anna Brantley

I don't use Google Reader because I usually just check the blogs I follow through blogger.  I'm afraid that if I have an app on my phone or iPad then I would be checking all the time.  Well, I guess I'm going to give Blog Lovin' a try!  Be sure to Follow Me for all my updates.  I've been using it for about a week now and I love how they send you an email each day.

No. 4

So... I finally went to Ikea with one of my great friends from school.  We had so much fun shopping for our classroom.  Here are a few things I picked up.  What you don't see is the cart full of stools and organizers!  Love those stools for $5.99!  I'm sure my students are going to love them.

We also ate at this AWESOME pizza place that has been featured on a traveling show.  It is well known for its unique brick pizza ovens that were shipped from Italy.  It was delicious!

No. 3

I've been spending a lot of sweet time with my sweet boys.  Our days are never boring to say the least.  I love capturing them doing their every day routines.

No. 2

I've been spending a lot of time in my classroom.  I know... it's crazy and I'm crazy.  I just can't go through summer without my room being somewhat complete.  I wouldn't be so worried if I were not teaching a different subject and moving into a new room {have I mentioned it's smaller???}.  I have a few pics I want to show, but I don't want to ruin my classroom reveal.  I do have a picture of my reading area that I will share on Monday for my Monday Made It... Don't miss it because it's really cute :)

No. 1

Lastly, I've been spending a lot of time here...

Excuse the large boat in the background.. lol

It's been difficult because my 18 month old doesn't last very long because he hasn't completely learned how to use his floats.  On the other hand, my three year old could stay out forever!

Five for Friday

Hey ya'll!  I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching again for Five for Friday.  I have seriously got to get better at taking pics.  I {LOVE} looking at others' pictures, but I never seem to take any of my own... WHY????  It just doesn't make sense to me.  Oh well..

So, I will steal some pics {not many there either} from my teaching Instagram {BTW- you can follow me at thecreativeapple.

Here we go....

1. This is probably my favorite time of the day.  My students have activity first, so from 7:30 until 8:50 I get my nice, quiet, dimly lit room to myself.  It doesn't get much better than that.  In this pic is my Erin Condren life planner.... lOVE IT!  I am seriously considering an Erin Condren teacher planner, but I haven't made my decision yet.  Right now I have my very own custom template that has worked very well for me this year... which brings me to #2.

2. It was announced this week {even though I knew last week} that I will be moving to teach 5th grade next year.  

You see, I feel this is where I belong.  I have always thought this since I student taught in 5th grade.  My first year was spent in a self contained regular ed. 5th grade classroom and my second year was spent in a reading 5th grade classroom.  The past 4 years have been spent in a 4th grade math classroom.  I love teaching 4th grade math, but I felt it was time for a change.  Which leads me to #3....

3.  There really isn't much to say about this one except for the fact that I can't wait to get the time to read them cover-to-cover!  I am overly excited to implement these next year in my 5th grade ELA class.

4. We had a talent show this afternoon at school and it was just precious.  The kids have worked so hard on it this year and I think it turned out really well.  We have a list of 15 final acts that will perform on Monday night.  I am so proud of all the kids for getting on stage in front of the entire school.  That in itself is something that I probably would not do!

5. I'm looking forward this lazy weekend that we have planned.  Last week was spent camping.  Just in case you were wondering.. camping with a one-year old and a three-year old is NO JOKE!  I am still exhausted and trying to catch back up on my rest.

I hope you all have a great restful weekend!

Five for Friday

Okay, so this will be short and sweet!

#1: Ya'll.. I love to shop!  I just do.  I can shop for just about anything and for any amount of time.  If the hubs wants to go to Lowe's and buy some new tools, guess what?  I want to go to!  This week, I treated my self for doing so well with WW and my running.  I bought some of the cutest things from Target.  I swear.... I love that store.
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Five for Friday

I have been out of blog land for a while now, so I was super excited to participate in this week's Five for Friday hosted by Doodle Bugs Teaching!  This week was a pretty normal week, and it will include a little bit of everything!

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